CB BureauSouth Korean steel major Posco’s India project faces a huge cloud of uncertainty. The expert panel set up by the environment ministry has accused the company of violating environmental laws.
Three of four members of the committee recommended that all initial clearances to the project be cancelled. Former environment secretary Meena Gupta was the only one favouring the company. She argued that there was no need to cancel the clearances and the company should be asked to submit a fresh environment impact assessment (EIA) report.
It may be noted here that Gupta was the environment secretary when Posco obtained all the clearances.
The other members of the committee included Urmila Pingle, an expert on tribal issues, Devendra Pandey, a former director of Forest Survey of India, and V Suresh, an advocate at Madras High Court. The committee had a mandate to report on the implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), and compliance with Environment Protection Act (EPA) and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) regulations at the project site. The committee was also asked to look into relief and rehabilitation measures being taken by the company.
The $12 billion project – proposed to be the single biggest foreign direct investment in India – is already under suspended animation following the environment ministry’s ‘stop work’ order in August this year. That order was based on the report of another committee that had alleged violations of FRA in the project area.
For the project that plans to produce 12 million tonnes of steel per annum – almost equal to the combined capacities of six of the existing steel plants in India at Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur, Rourkela, Burnpur and Salem – there seems little hope now.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that he was ‘conscious’ of the larger strategic importance of the project. He said that the committee pointed to some ‘weaknesses and infirmities’ in the way Forest Rights Act was being implemented and that there was room for significant improvement.